Code: Monarch
by 20 minutes
Summary: One is a trained assassin that has never had anything to love. Two are royalty from different regions. One is a peasant that is an outcast everywhere he goes. The last has been a prisoner for as long as he can remember. They are all different. They are all special. They are all connected.
1. Accidental Attempted Assassination

**Guess what? Disclaimed.**

**Yeah, don't think this chapter is very good, but I wrote it about a year ago. I think. Anywho...I promise as it gains more chapters, they will be longer and better. Most likely.  
**

**~LJ  
**

* * *

Chapter One

The wind chills my bones as I stand in the shadows, observing the eerily quiet courtyard. Guards mill around the campus, watching for intruders such as myself.

Fear pulses through my veins. My first mission: break into a virtually unbreakable base and get out without being seen, but I have to leave my mark. His Majesty must expect a lot from me, if I am to carry out this feat.

From what I hear from inside of the Ice Region, this is one of the toughest, strictest kingdoms in all of Lyoko, along with having the best military and navy. The Sterns are the ruling family – the king and queen, and their children, Prince Ulrich and Princess Ayala. Prince Ulrich was the heart-throb of the land, heir to the throne, commander of the army, and even, a little ironically, a bit of a rebel. The girls all over swoon or faint at the mere mention of his name – but honestly, he's not my type. He's too cocky, too famous and popular.

The searchlight passes over my spot, but I'm already gone, racing across the side of the castle. _Slow down_, I think to myself, breathing hard,_ this is a test of stealth, not speed. It doesn't matter how long I take to find one. _

Okay, so maybe I left out a part in my mission. I'm supposed to kill a maidservant as my mark, to signal the warning of war.

But that's not the point.

I wait at the back of the massive building, knowing that in a few minutes, a cook will bring the trash out to the dumpsters, and my chance to get in will be practically slapping my cheek.

Everything goes right on schedule. The fat, stubby cook walks out hauling two huge plastic bags, leaving the door swinging wide open. I quietly sprint inside, the cook grumbling about needing more sleep.

Inside, the dark hallways seem too long and the marble floors glittered like glass in the faint moonlight, as if it would cave in underneath my weight. Nothing stirs in the darkness besides me.

Perfect.

When I reach the third floor, a younger, pink-haired girl enters the walkway. She held a glass of water in her pale hand._ She'll do_, I think menacingly.

I took out my knife and aimed it at her heart. Moonlight glinted off of the blade for a fraction of a second, but the girl saw it and immediately knew what it was. She screamed and dropped the glass of water, sending shrapnel and water everywhere.

I'd ruined my chances at succeeding in my mission; I'd failed at making His Majesty proud – I know this. But before I could flee, one of the many doors in this hallway flies open to reveal a teenage boy with a sword.

Prince Ulrich.

I'm dead.

I freeze and watch, fearful that I would be caught or even just seen. He didn't spot me, so he walked over to console the traumatized girl. "Princess, what's wrong? Why did you scream?" he asks, scanning the room for assassins. _Princess?! There aren't any princesses in this country with pink hair!_

She points in my direction with a shaky hand, crying. "I saw a knife! Someone was going to kill me, Ulrich!" she wails and puts her head in her hands.

The prince glances at the surrounding shadows, finally seeing my figure in the dark. _I have to get out of here!_ "Go to your room, Aelita, and don't come out until I come back. Take a guard too," he orders her and starts toward me with his sword in front of him as she runs into the safety of her dorm with her newly arrived guardian.

That's when I jump out of the window.

When you're on the third story of a castle, most sane people would stay far away from that. Apparently, I'm not really all that scared of going splat.

And apparently, I'm not really all that sane, either.

The prince hesitates before jumping out after me, and that gave me a few seconds head start. But somehow, that didn't seem to matter.

I'm yanked backwards by the ties on my head mask, and I almost cry out in pain as my skull connects with stone. Almost. That's when I realized something:

My mask was off.

"You're a girl?!" the prince cried.

Ouch, that stung. "And you're a boy – thanks for noticing," I say sarcastically.

Ulrich only just managed to stutter, "But…but you tried to kill Aelita!"

I tuck a lock of my jet-black hair behind my ear. "So, your point is? I'm just doing my job."

He's definitely shocked beyond all means, I can tell. He only watches as I got up, rubbed my head, and walked away.

I stop a few yards away and say, looking back, "Watch yourself and Pinky, big-shot. I might just have to come back for a final round." Then I wink and sprint of into the shadows of the trees, leaving him speechless behind me.

* * *

A female assassin.

Huh.

The Princess Aelita was waiting in her room, like I had told her to do, being comforted by a female Guardian. She asks if the killer had been caught, but I replied, "No, I'm so sorry, Aelita, but she had not." She hangs her head and sniffles, and only then do I realize how scary this had been for her, so I try to cheer her up by saying, "I managed to get a pretty good look at her face, though."

Aelita gives me a quizzical expression. "So, it was a… a girl?"

I nod, frowning. "Trust me; I was just as surprised as you are now, if not more." Yeah, I was way more surprised than she is, but who cares?

She gazes out of the window, seemingly looking at nothing. "I just hope that she doesn't work for who I think she does…"

My best friend, Odd, shows up at the iron gate the next morning.

It was gray and dreary today, which didn't help my feeling of failure. I cannot believe that I just stood there as she escaped into the night! What an idiotic thing to do! If you had seen me, you probably would have said I was in love or something – which I totally wasn't! Not at all! Assassins trying to kill princesses are _so_ not my type.

"Sorry, Odd, but I can't talk right now – last night, Aelita–"

"–was almost murdered, I know," he interrupts. "In fact, most of the kingdom knows. Somehow Sissy found out, and she's spreading the news like wildfire."

I sigh, expecting as much. Then I scowl. "When will that cow learn to mind her own business?" I ask rhetorically.

Odd shrugs as we walk back to the castle. "Probably never, but I didn't come here to talk about her – what happened last night? Did you catch the assassin? Is he being questioned as we speak? Did you throw him in prison to rot forever?"

I look away. "It was a girl, Odd. Even worse, she was our age, maybe a year older."

His eyes bug out like a frog. "She was a _girl_?!" Then he puts on a sly, devious look. "Was she hot?"

I didn't answer, but my face must have been tomato red, because he says, "Oh, she was, wasn't she? You like her!"

"I do not! And don't you dare turn into a Sissy-clone!"

He grins big and wide, showing off his sharp canine teeth. "Don't worry, buddy, I won't tell anyone that you have a crush on a killer."

I grab the front of his shirt and lift him off of the ground by a couple of inches (not that it was hard, he's extremely short. *Odd: I'm svelte!*). "Shut up! I do not like her!" He lifts up his hands in surrender and I drop him.

"Whatever, dude, but at least tell me that you got her phone number for me, right?" I roll my eyes and we keep walking, now in silence.

* * *

"Failure! Always failure! I am so sick and tired of my young assassins failing me!"

I wince as His Majesty swears, spitting on the ground at my feet. "But, your Highness, I did collect some valuable information for you! The mission wasn't a complete failure, sir!" I interrupt, desperate to share my news.

His Majesty stops in mid-swear, narrowing his red eyes at my dark figure. "I'm listening…"

"The royal family of the Forest Region must be forming a secret alliance of some sort behind our backs, because there was this girl with short pink hair that they called 'Princess Aelita'! I say quickly.

His Majesty's face brightens at this, but somehow that makes him look even more frightening.

* * *

**So, there it is. Don't like it, don't care. Review or not, doesn't matter to me. I'm not one of those people who say, "If I get so many reviews, I'll update." I will update when I want to and if I want to. One of the few things I do not stand for is immature people. "This story sucks" does not help make it better in the least. If you want a good story to read, then give creative criticism, not a bunch of crap. **  
**  
****Once again, this will most likely get better if you don't like it. If you do, then...it'll still get better. :) I don't write like this much anymore, especially when I used to get my past tenses and stuff mixed up when I write. this is meant to be in present-tense, so if you see any mistakes, please IM or review and tell me.**

**Oh, and I had put this story up before, but I was new to and I didn't understand how to upload a new chapter and then it got messed up and I didn't know how to fix it and everything really went downhill from there. So, I found this on my computer and am all like, "Why not?" and I had already started to type up the second chapter before, so I figured I might as well re-upload it, now that I know how to do it correctly.  
**

**~LJ  
**


	2. The Trap

**Yesterday I was taking a walk, and out of nowhere - BAM! I was told that I don't own Code Lyoko or its characters and probably never will. Oh, how I cried that night.**

**So, here's the new chapter. Like I said before, I had already started to type it up before and I just finished it, so don't be expecting new chapters to come this quickly anymore.  
**

**Insincerely,**

**~LJ  
**

* * *

Chapter Two

"_Failure! Always failure! I am so sick and tired of my young assassins failing me!"_

_I wince as His Majesty swears, spitting on the ground at my feet. "But, your Highness, I did collect some valuable information for you! The mission wasn't a complete failure, sir!" I interrupt, desperate to share my news._

_His Majesty stops in mid-swear, narrowing his red eyes at my dark figure. "I'm listening…" _

"_The royal family of the Forest Region must be forming a secret alliance of some sort behind our backs, because there was this girl with short pink hair that they called 'Princess Aelita'! I say quickly._

_His Majesty's face brightens at this, but somehow that makes him look even more frightening. _

"The princess of the Mountain Region!" The king smiles down on my face, causing shivers to run down my spine, but I hide them as best as I can. "This is very important information indeed – and in return for this, a feast shall be thrown in your honor tonight, my Dark Angel!" I bow and hurry out of the room, my mind going a mile a minute.

My outfit is delivered that evening while two women are putting on my make-up and styling my hair. I object to them tying pink ribbons in my jet-black hair, saying that I'm not a little girl, and I almost scream when they talk about how I would look "_so cute_" in pigtails.

"I wish I was talented like you are, honey," the younger one, with dark evergreen hair, complained. "I'm only good at making others look beautiful!"

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, cause trying to kill people is _so_ much fun." _Actually, it kind of is._

"Yes, but I was forced to work for His Majesty, and I'm not even appreciated!" she whines, and the other, the older one with light blue hair and yellow eyes, consoles her, telling her that she wasn't the only one who feels this way.

Then comes the usual gossip – you know the stuff that makes me want to puke. "Oh, yes, I heard that he's even hotter than he is on the Flat!"

"Hey, did you know that the prince of the Forest Region may be coming tonight? I'm pretty sure that's what His Majesty said!" the green-girl squealed like metal-on-metal, and they both burst into fits of super-high shrieks and giggles.

I didn't though, because I actually knew what this meant.

Ulrich and I would be having our final round.

* * *

"Where are we going again?"

"To a banquet in the Ice Sector, held by King Xana," I reply. "He said something about an alliance discussion." The whole thing was most likely a plot to kill us, but it didn't matter. If I died, the only thing my parents would think they lost was a good military commander, not their son.

Aelita, on the other hand, thought differently, and hadn't wanted me to go alone. "So why am I here?"

"Because you were being protective of one of your best friends and tagged along."

"Oh, right…" she says, looking at her feet.

"Look, she finally remembers!" I say sarcastically.

She raises an eyebrow and looks at me as if I should know something obvious. "I'm just thinking, shouldn't there be at least one guard with us? What if the assassin attacks again?"

"Look, Aelita," I say, exasperated, "we don't even know if she was even _from_ the Ice Region, much less working for Xana! What if she was just some crazy chick that escaped from the asylum, huh? She did jump out of a window thirty feet up, remember?"

"So did you."

I throw my hands up and the hover vehicle swerves before I grab the wheel again. "That's not my point! I only did it to catch her; she did it so she wouldn't be caught!"

"Exactly! She didn't even flinch or hesitate before jumping! Only a trained assassin would do that!" Aelita cries out. "And if she works for Xana, then she's more powerful than she looks! I mean, come on Ulrich! The way you described her, she couldn't have been more than a year older than us, and she was still able to get into the third floor of the castle!"

She's right and I know it, but I don't want to admit defeat. Though it did make me feel better to think that she wasn't normal, and that an average girl didn't escape me.

That someone equal, maybe more powerful than me, got past.

She has to be a freak like me and Aelita.

My eyes wander around the grand hall. Hundreds of people mill around, with King Xana on his giant throne. Even though he was grinning, there is a harsh glittering in his scarlet eyes. _He's planning something_, I think, eyes narrowing.

Just before I tear my eyes from the king of the Ice Region, a familiar shadow ripples to his right, a couple yards behind him. Then, I see the intelligent slanted eyes of the female assassin. She's staring at me, and I can just barely make out her triumphant smirk before she fades back into the shade.

I've reached the final conclusion that this _is _a trap, and that I need to get Aelita out of here, when Xana rises from his throne. Everybody is then silent, falling to their knees. Aelita and I are the only ones left standing.

The king clears his throat and speaks, the harshness still left in eyes. "First off, I would like to thank you all for coming to this special occasion. I would also like to welcome Prince Ulrich from the Forest Region and Princess Aelita of the Mountain Region. Please enjoy our hospitality."

With that, everyone jumps up and scurries to the edges of the grand hall. Someone slips a knife to my throat and catches my arms behind my back. "Ready for our final round, dear?" said person's voice hisses into my ear. My blood freezes.

Aelita shrieks and backs up into two guards that had materialized. They snatch her and drag her away, kicking and screaming the whole time. "Release us at once, Xana!" I demand. He only chuckles and waves his hand.

The pressure on my neck disappears, but when I turn to face my opponent, there's no one to fight. I turn once again to face the way I had been before, and the girl is right there. She's twirling a dagger in her hand, staring at it with boredom in her gaze.

Then she looks up at me, grinning, and I'm taken back by how breathtaking she is. Dressed in a dark red and black dress with her black hair down, she looks just like a…

"My Dark Angel," Xana commands, "finish him off. We have no use for a military commander."

"Gladly." Her voice is just how I remember, so haunting and mysterious. She rushes at me with her dagger, light glinting off of the dark metal.

That's enough to shake me out of my stupor, giving me just enough time to dodge her carefully calculated swings and kicks.

I thrust my fist at her stomach, but she moves and I catch her side instead. I hear her breath leave her in a big _whoosh_, and she falls next to a podium. Her blade clatters across the floor, but then she's up again with the vase from the podium in her hand.

Startled by her quickness, I don't register the vase crashing into my skull. I fall to the floor, dazed, but I can see Xana, once again seated on his throne and smiling – as if watching his favorite show on the Flat. He doesn't seem to care that his vase was used as a weapon.

The girl picks up a shard from the décor, but before she can do anything else, I hear a window shatter and Odd's signature battle cry:

"BONZAI!"

* * *

**Yuperoo, that was it. I still haven't said who the assassin is, but I'm pretty sure it's utterly obvious. Would've made the fight scene longer, but I wanted to post this today and I was running out of time.**

**Any questions, corrections, reviews, ideas, or whatever are appreciated!  
**

**Insincerely,  
**

**~LJ  
**


	3. Hey

Hey, this is probably going to disappoint some people.

I'm discontinuing this story completely. I'm done trying to force myself to write new chapters for something I don't even enjoy anymore. I don't really like CL much anymore, so I just don't see any point in trying to continue this.

I feel really bad for doing this, you know. But, I've realized something. I'm living my whole life just so I don't disappoint people, but I always fail in the end. So, I'm done hurting myself. I'm going to stop this story.

Another factor is my dad. He just took a really low blow on my self-confidence. He was so worked up with arguing with my brother about his grades that, when he had nothing else to say to him, he decided to take it out on me. He told me that everything I write is "complete _crap_." It's not much, I know, and it sounds petty, but the worst part of it is that my dad is really religious. I've never heard him swear in my life, and the fact that it was directed at me makes it ten times worse. After that, I doubt myself. I'm not sure if I can actually write anymore at all.

So, no more updates. I feel really bad about this, especially because I was just alerted that someone just favorited it. I really am sorry, but the story wouldn't have been any good anyways. What story would when the author doesn't want to write it anymore?

One more thing. If anyone really likes this so much, I'm putting it up for adoption. I can't deny a person to continue something I don't want to, or care to for that matter. But if no one responds saying that they'll take it within the month, it's going down forever.

I'm sorry…

~LJ


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